Pre-paid models of doing business have been adapted to many applications, such as cell phones. In such devices, the initial cost of a device is fronted by a party in exchange for a stream of payments in the future. The device has a monitoring function that ensures that the user stays in compliance or else imposes sanctions such as ending service. However, many monitoring functions and devices may be hacked or modified such that the metering function is avoided but the device has the same or acceptable performance.